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Wind Cave Happenings, January/February 2006
During January
and February of 2006, 22 survey trips were taken into off-trail
portions of Wind Cave, including 15 trips to the Historic Section,
5 trips to the Club Room Section, 1 trip to the Southern Comfort
Section, and 1 trip to the North Section. During these trips, cavers
surveyed and inventoried a total of 7,650 feet or 1.45 miles of
passage, with an average survey length of 431 feet per survey. This
new survey raised the length of Wind Cave from 118.38 to 119.83
miles. On February 13, the Wind Cave survey passed Hoelloch Cave
of Switzerland to become the fourth longest cave in the world. In
addition to the survey trips, 8 work trips were taken; including
6 resurvey trips, where 1,850 feet of problem surveys were resurveyed.
1/3/2006
Larry Shaffer, Andy & Bonny Armstrong, & Kelly Brownson
Larry led an evening trip back to the Ghost Town area on the western
edge of the Historic Section. They surveyed 166 feet of previously
scooped passage and left several leads for a future trip.
1/6/2006
Rod Horrocks & Derek Marohn
Rod led a trip back to the Geode Hall area in the Historic Section
to resurvey the main BI survey and mop up any associated side leads.
They named the vertical connection between Geode Hall and the upper
BI survey, Engine House No. 6. They resurveyed 160 feet and added
221 feet of new survey for the day. They left a good climbing lead
for a later trip.
1/11/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a work trip to the Mammoth Galleries, Buffalo Gap, and
the Nudist Colony to replace Dr. John Moore’s Petri dishes
for his biological experiments.
1/11/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a resurvey trip to the NL survey in the Historic Section.
They resurveyed 262 feet and left a few leads for someone else.
Wind Cave Weekend:
1/14/2006
Jason Walz,
Andrea Croskrey, Johanna Kovarik, & Ben Tobin
Jason led a survey trip to the DK and DJ surveys in the lower level
of the Club Room Section. They surveyed 506 feet and named Snowshoe
Road and Chilkoot Pass.
Jim Wilson,
Tim Moreland, Dan Wray, & Howard Bartlett
Jim led a trip to the MP survey in the Club Room Section. They surveyed
675 feet and left lots of leads in the Multipurpose Room area.
Marc Ohms, Duff
McCafferty, Sara Booth, & Ken Geu
Marc led a trip to resurvey the B* survey in the Historic Section.
They resurveyed 400 feet and added 200 feet of new survey to the
area.
1/17/2006
Rod Horrocks, Steve Baldwin, John Scheltens, & Derek Marohn
Rod led an evening trip to the Silent Lake area in the Historic
Section to survey leads off of the upper BI survey. They surveyed
some tight connections between the UU and BI surveys before finding
a squeeze that led to a new room above Engine House No. 6. They
surveyed 113 feet.
1/19/2006
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, & Derek Marohn
Marc led a resurvey trip in the Historic Section. They resurveyed
157 feet of the NV survey.
1/23/2006
Marc Ohms
& Jason Walz
Marc led a trip back to the NV survey in the Historic Section to
continue the resurvey project. They resurveyed 230 more feet, finishing
the NV.
1/25/2006
Rod Horrocks & Derek Marohn
Rod led a trip to resurvey the UEA survey in the Historic Section.
They found a two-foot long fossil burrow while resurveying 275 feet.
They also added 155 feet of new survey.
2/3/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a resurvey trip to the NZA survey in the Historic Section.
They found some flexible boxwork while resurveying 200 feet.
2/7/2006
Rod Horrocks, Alexis Brooks, & Derek Marohn
Rod led a trip to survey leads off of the Candlelight Tour Route
in the Historic Section. They surveyed several side leads between
P6-7 for 383 feet. They left some climbing leads for a later trip.
2/7/2006
Larry Shaffer, Andy & Bonny Armstrong, & Sara Booth
Larry led a trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section
to continue surveying their leads. They named the Zerba Room while
surveying 244 feet. They left a few leads for a future trip.
2/7/2006
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, & Larry Shaffer
Marc led a trip to the HX survey in the Historic Section. They found
a really nice formation area while surveying 275 feet. They only
left a few miserable leads.
2/720/06
Jason Walz, Andre Baumeister, & Eric Grunwald
Jason led a trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section
to survey side leads. They surveyed 101 feet and named one room,
Der Biergarten.
Wind Cave Weekend:
2/11/2006
Carl Bern,
Derek Wolfe, & Larry Schaffer
Carl led a survey trip past the Skinner in the Southern Comfort
Section. They found the largest discovery on the edge of the cave
since Pizza Hut was discovered in 1999 by Marc Ohms. They named
the Gas Chamber while surveying 809 feet of new passage.
Marc & Rene
Ohms, & Andy & Bonny Armstrong
Marc led a trip south of the Key Room in the North Section to survey
leads. They discovered a beautifully decorated area off of the PB
survey that they named Stalactites Galore while surveying 802 feet.
Amy Bern, Sara
Booth, & Jason Walz
Amy led a trip to the Club Room to survey leads in a pit along the
CP survey. They named the Bern Tunnel, Beil Tunnel, and Boglis Doghouse
due to the fact that the Wind Cave survey passed Hoelloch Cave of
Switzerland that day to become the fourth longest cave in the world.
They surveyed 501 feet.
Jim Wilson,
Tim Moreland, Howard Bartlett, & Skip Withrow
Jim led a trip back to the Multpurpose Room in the Club Room Section
to continue surveying leads. They discovered an obscure hole that
led to 450 feet of virgin passage. They surveyed 620 feet for the
day.
Jeff Goben,
Rick Speaect, & Christa Schneider
Jeff led a trip just past the Club Room to survey a lead from a
previous trip. They surveyed 259 feet and found an additional lead
for a future trip.
Rod Horrocks,
Ken Geu, & Dean Faust
Rod led a trip to the No Don’t Stop passage along the north
edge of the Historic Section. They surveyed several domes before
finding a nice passage they named End of the Road, which abruptly
ended in a calcified breakdown choke on the edge of the cave. They
surveyed 551 feet and left numerous leads for a future trip.
2/13/2006
Marc Ohms, Jason Walz, Linda Stoll, Rick Mossman, & Sabrina
Henry
Marc led a trip to the Club Room for various park staff to give
them an appreciation for what it would take to rescue someone from
the cave, and simply an appreciation of the resource.
2/21/2006
Jason Walz, Bonny Armstrong, & Eric Grunwald
Jason led a trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section
to continue surveying leads. They named the Berlin Crawl and Skull
Crossings while surveying 220 feet of passage. They finished all
of the leads from the Zerba Room. This brought the total survey
in the Ghost Town area to 2,407 feet.
March/April
2006
During March
and April of 2006, 17 survey trips were taken into off-trail portions
of Wind Cave, including 9 trips to the Historic Section, 4 trips
to the Club Room Section, 3 trips to the North Section, and 1 trip
to the Southern Comfort Section. During these trips, cavers surveyed
and inventoried a total of 4,757 feet or 0.9 miles of passage, with
an average survey length of 280 feet per survey. This new survey
raised the length of Wind Cave from 119.83 to 120.73 miles. In addition
to the survey trips, 2 work trips were taken; including 1 resurvey
trip, where 132 feet of problem survey was resurveyed.
3/2/2006
Jason Walz, Dorte Wolfkuhler, & Andre Baumeister
Jason led a resurvey trip to the AQ survey in the Historic Section
where they resurveyed 132 feet and named an area, “Bermuda
Dreieck” (Bermuda Triangle), after the area in Germany where
Dorte lives.
3/7/2006
Jason Walz, Bonny Armstrong, & Andy Armstrong
Jason led an evening trip to a pit along the edge of the Club Room.
They named a climb-down the “Crafty Maneuver”, because
it reminded them of a similar climb-down in Jewel Cave by the same
name. They then rigged a 35-foot pit that Jason had found on an
earlier trip along the VII survey and surveyed down, connecting
to the Lower Level and the ST survey. If it weren’t for the
vertical work, this would be a faster route to the ST survey than
down the Boxwork chimney. They surveyed 67 feet for the trip.
3/7/2006
Larry Shaffer, Sara Booth, & Eric Grenwald
Larry led a trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section
to continue pushing that area. They surveyed 189 feet and left a
couple of small leads for a future trip.
Wind Cave Weekend:
3/11/2006
Larry Shaffer, Mike Wiles, & Derek Wolfe
Larry led a trip to the Delusions of Grandeur area in the Southern
Comfort Section. They surveyed a lead not on the map that provided
some momentary excitement before it reconnected to known cave. They
then surveyed into a dome complex for a days total of 497 feet.
Marc Ohms, Randy
Macan, & Rob McFarland
Marc led a trip back to the EX survey in the North Section. They
spent most of the day surveying some crawls found at the top of
a dome at EX4. They surveyed 522 feet and exited the cave via the
Snake Pit Entrance. They wrapped up this area, declaring it finished.
Amy Bern, Jeff
Goben, & Andrew Blackstock
Amy led a trip to the Pail of Fill area in the North Section. Entering
through the Snake Pit Entrance, they surveyed several nasty leads
for 207 feet and extended the length of the webbing on the breakdown
climb on the Pink Trail. They then exited the cave via the elevator.
Jim Wilson,
Tim Moreland, Eric Dutton & Evan Blackstock
Jim led a trip to the Multi Purpose Room in the Club Room Section.
They surveyed several leads for 595 feet, leaving several others
for a future trip.
Jason Walz,
Ben Tobin, & Christiane Grebe
Jason led a survey trip to the Lower Level in the Club Room Section.
They named a tight fissure Schmale Kluft (Tight Fissure) and surveyed
several passages for a total of 305 feet.
Mike Hanson,
Dave Springhetti, & Maurita Kaufman
Mike led a photo trip to the Candlelight Tour Route in the Historic
Section to continue his stereo pair photo project. He is trying
to recreate all the historic stereo photos taken in the cave during
the 1890’s.
Rod Horrocks,
Ken Geu, & Duff McCafferty
Rod led a survey trip to the No Don’t Stop area (NB survey)
in the Historic Section in order to push leads along the edge of
the cave. They surveyed three nasty leads, one that had air, on
the very northeastern edge of the cave, before retreating to the
Red Clay Room. There, they found a route down through the breakdown
into a small room underneath the Red Clay Room, where they surveyed
a hundred feet of new cave. For the day, they surveyed 276 feet
and left a few leads for a future trip.
3/21/2006
Jason Walz, Peggy Renwick, & Ben Currens
Jason led a trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section.
They surveyed 159 feet and left good leads for a future trip.
3/24/2006
Marc Ohms & Jason Walz
Marc led a work trip to Calcite and What the Hell Lakes in the Lakes
Section to check on water levels. They found that Calcite Lake was
down a tenth of an inch.
4/4/2006
Jason Walz, Christian Levers, & Barbara Grunow
Jason led a trip to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section
to continue pushing his leads from his last trip. They surveyed
95 feet in some crawlways and left a dome lead for his next trip.
4/4/2006
Jason Walz, Bonny Armstrong, & Eric Grunwald
Jason led an evening trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic
Section. He returned to his lead from earlier in the day and climbed
the dome. They found a 20-foot diameter room they named Hotel Fairburn.
The only way on was through a small hole that quickly reconnected
to the TT’ survey. They surveyed 268 feet.
Wind Cave Weekend:
4/8/2006
Bonny Armstrong,
Rene Ohms, & Larry Shaffer
Bonny led a trip to the PB survey in the North Section to check
leads. They surveyed a passage at PB8 for 26 stations and 410 feet.
Jason Walz,
Ian Shanklin, & Cherine Bashara
Jason led a trip to the ZC, LL, & ST surveys in the Lower Level
of the Club Room Section. They pushed several leads for 423 feet.
Rod Horrocks,
Erik Kurth, Duff McCafferty, & Ken Geu
Rod led a trip back to the NB survey in the Historic Section to
continue checking his list of leads. They surveyed several domes
and side passages off of the No Don’t Stop passage. In one
that is heading towards a blank area, they found a skeleton of what
looked like a wood rat. They left that lead and two other small
crawls for a smaller survey party. They surveyed 372 feet for the
day.
Ben Tobin &
Heather Veerkamp
Ben led a trip to the Wall Street area in the Historic Section.
They surveyed three short leads for a total of 94 feet. They also
left some nasty leads for a future generation.
4/17/2006
Marc Ohms & Branden Johnson
Marc led a work trip to the Club Room to put some items in the rescue
cache. He found the cache in good shape.
4/18/2006
Larry Shaffer & Sara Booth
Larry led an evening trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic
Section. They surveyed 132 feet in some small leads in the Make
Out Room area and left some other leads for a later trip.
4/18/2006
Jason Walz & Eric Grunwald
Jason led a trip back to the Ghost Town area in the Historic Section.
They surveyed several small leads for 146 feet, leaving more leads
for a future trip. This trip brought the total survey in the Ghost
Town area to 3,396 feet.
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